He is not on the teaching staff, but every time he goes to
Baise, a poverty-stricken county in the
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, children there lovingly call
him "teacher Chen."
Chen Kaizhi, 66, former chairman of the Guangzhou Committee of
the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),
is among the key people during the ongoing fourth session of the
10th CPPCC for his dedication to quality education for rural
children.
Moreover, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization named him one of the top 10 educational
people in China last month.
In the past 10 years, he has been to Baise 54 times, delivering
more than 200 million yuan (US$24.7 million) in investments for the
educational development.
"Investment comes from all circles, most of which comes from
enterprises based in Hong Kong, Macao
and overseas countries," Chen told China Daily in an
interview.
Since 1996, there have been more than 220 new schools
established in Baise, benefiting about 30,000 children whose
families were too poor to send them to school.
Chen's effort is far from finished. He has set a goal to go
there 100 times in the hope of aiding even more children in
education.
"Now that I have already been there 54 times over the past few
years, children there know me and call me 'teacher Chen.' I think
the total of 100 times can be realized in my lifetime," Chen said,
adding that more schools have already been built in
Gansu Province, the
Tibet Autonomous Region and
Shanxi Province under his fund-raising program after his first
visit to Baise.
In 1996,
Guangdong, an economic powerhouse in south China, launched a
special program to help children go to schools in poverty-stricken
areas. The success there meant that the program could expand
elsewhere, so Chen was selected to head for Baise.
At that time, he was vice mayor of Guangzhou and was promoted to
be the chairman of the Guangzhou Committee of the CPPCC until he
retired in March, last year.
A group of children in Baise, who had been aided by the late
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, wrote to Chen, saying they were not
able to continue their studies after Deng's death in 1997.
"I wrote back and promised them continued access to schools, and
now they have all been to college," said Chen, adding that he gave
his personal savings to help.
The thanks he gets comes from smiling children who gather around
him, asking him to help them go to school. Such visits have made
Chen realize that only education can help lead rural areas out of
poverty.
"Educational development in rural areas should be given priority
in the drive to build a 'new socialist countryside' in the long
term," Chen said.
Since Chen said 571 poor counties across China still cannot
support nine-year compulsory education with local governments'
financing, he suggested that more charity projects are important to
help children gain access to schools.
"I'm not a teacher," Chen said. "But experience tells me that
aiding children by fund-raising from social circles does promote
educational development in rural areas.
(China Daily March 9, 2006)